Looking to upgrade to HPVM 4.3 or 6.1

[BenKennedy]

We have a rx7640 box that is currently running HPVM 4.0

Since we don't have a test server to apply patches to we are always hesitant to install anything new to the hypervisor.

We've had the hypervisior crash a couple times in the last year or so, and HP has told us that we should upgrade to a newer version of HPVM.

When reviewing the release notes for each of them, the one thing that I'm unsure of has to do with the changes in support with regard to VIO.

I'm not familiar enough to know if we are using VIO or not, but the commands the release notes say to run are

"hpvmstatus -P vmname -d |grep -w scsi" and "hpvmstatus -P vmname -d |grep -w lan".

When I run these commands I do get results.  My question is, should I be looking for something specific to know if we're using VIO or does the fact that we get results on those commands show that we are using VIO?

[Dave Olker]

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@BenKennedy wrote:

When I run these commands I do get results.  My question is, should I be looking for something specific to know if we're using VIO or does the fact that we get results on those commands show that we are using VIO?

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What results do you get?

Dave

[BenKennedy]

Here are the results from our production virtual machine.

# hpvmstatus -P vmprod -d |grep -w scsi
disk:scsi:0,0,0:disk:/dev/rdsk/c4t0d0
disk:scsi:0,0,1:disk:/dev/rdsk/c6t0d0
disk:scsi:0,0,2:disk:/dev/rdsk/c15t0d0
disk:scsi:0,0,3:disk:/dev/rdsk/c8t0d0
disk:scsi:0,0,4:disk:/dev/rdsk/c4t1d0
disk:scsi:0,0,5:disk:/dev/rdsk/c4t2d0
disk:scsi:0,0,6:disk:/dev/rdsk/c4t3d0
disk:scsi:0,0,7:disk:/dev/rdsk/c4t4d0
disk:scsi:0,0,8:disk:/dev/rdsk/c4t5d0
disk:scsi:0,0,9:disk:/dev/rdsk/c6t1d0
disk:scsi:0,0,10:disk:/dev/rdsk/c6t2d0
disk:scsi:0,0,11:disk:/dev/rdsk/c6t3d0
disk:scsi:0,0,12:disk:/dev/rdsk/c6t4d0
disk:scsi:0,0,13:disk:/dev/rdsk/c6t5d0
# hpvmstatus -P vmprod -d |grep -w lan
network:lan:0,1,0xf60a8f3ef194:vswitch:vswprod
#

[Dave Olker]

Yes, you are using VIO.  The disks using "scsi" are VIO.  The network interfaces using "lan" are using VIO.  Can you convert these to AVIO or do you have applications that require these remain VIO?

Dave

[BenKennedy]

I don't believe there is any reason that we must continue using VIO, but I can't be certain.

How would I go about upgrading these disks and network interface to use AVIO instead?

Thanks for the assistance, Dave.

-Ben

[Dave Olker · Accepted solution]

I've never done the conversion myself so I don't know if there is a simple command to move from VIO to AVIO.  However, you're also using non-agile Device Special Files for your disks (i.e. /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0) instead of agile DSFs (i.e. /dev/rdisk/disk1).  If I were looking to convert your system to AVIO I would also convert to agile DSFs at the same time.  You will have to determine the mapping between your legacy DSFs and their matching agile DSF for each of the disks involved.  You can do that with the "ioscan -m dsf" command:

atcuxbl6(/) -> ioscan -m dsf
Persistent DSF         Legacy DSF(s)

=============================================

/dev/rdisk/disk8       /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0
/dev/rdisk/disk8_p1    /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0s1
/dev/rdisk/disk8_p2    /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0s2
/dev/rdisk/disk8_p3    /dev/rdsk/c0t8d0s3
/dev/rdisk/disk9       /dev/rdsk/c0t8d1
/dev/rdisk/disk9_p2    /dev/rdsk/c0t8d1s2
/dev/rdisk/disk9_p1    /dev/rdsk/c0t8d1s1
/dev/rdisk/disk9_p3    /dev/rdsk/c0t8d1s3
/dev/rdisk/disk10      /dev/rdsk/c43t0d0

Once you know the agile DSFs to use you would shutdown the VM and use hpvmmodify to remove the old device and add the new device.  An example would be:

# hpvmmodify -P vmprod -d disk:scsi:0,0,0:disk:/dev/rdsk/c4t0d0

# hpvmmodify -P vmprod -a disk:avio_stor::disk:/dev/rdisk/disk1  <<<  whatever the agile DSF is

Do this for each of the scsi disks using the appropriate agile DSF for each disk.  For the network interface the procedure is the same:

# hpvmmodify -P vmprod -d network:lan:0,1,0xf60a8f3ef194:vswitch:vswprod

# hpvmmodify -P vmprod -a network:avio_lan:0,1,0xf60a8f3ef194:vswitch:vswprod

As for moving to v4.3 or v6.1, you should carefully consider things like how long each version will remain supported and which OS versions are supported inside the VM guests.  The fact that you're running an older verison of HPVM tells me you're probably running an older version of 11i v3 (or possibly 11i v2) in your guests.  If you have any 11i v2 guests, you'd have to pick either v4.3 or the very latest version - v6.1.5 - to get 11i v2 guest support.  If you have any OpenVMS guests you'd have to remain on v4.3 as there is no support for OpenVMS guests on the v6.X product line.

Hope this helps,

Dave